Bears Win!

Washington University's top-ranked women's basketball team got all it could handle from Baldwin-Wallace College in its NCAA Tournament sectional championship matchup Saturday night, March 11, in the Field House. But the Bears held on for an 86-71 win that propelled them into the Final Four for the third straight year.

The win over third-ranked Baldwin-Wallace came one night after the Bears downed No. 2 undefeated University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire in one of the best sectionals in Division III history. WU will play the University of Scranton (Pa.), a 72-59 winner over St. Lawrence University, in the national semifinals Friday, March 17, in Danbury, Conn. The national championship game is set for Saturday, March 18.

"It was No. 1 against No. 3, and there was a lot of pride, talent and heart out there," said Bears head coach Nancy Fahey. "Both teams kept going at each other, and it was just a lot of fun to be a part of. You could see the genuine enthusiasm on both sides."

The Bears looked strong early, opening a 10-3 lead just over four minutes into the game. They extended the lead to 11, 28-17, with 5:46 left in the half, but Baldwin-Wallace came storming back. The Yellow Jackets hit seven of their last eight shots over the final 4:19 of the first half, highlighted by Kim Luthman's three-pointer with one second left, to forge a 38-38 tie heading into the locker room.

Baldwin-Wallace shot 52 percent in the first half and turned the ball over just five times. WU was a step better, hitting 56 percent from the floor. Junior Tasha Rodgers and senior All-America Alia Fischer each scored 13 points to lead the team. Fischer added six rebounds and four blocks, and Rodgers collected three steals.

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Supersite

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has designated Washington University as the lead institution for the new St. Louis - Midwest Supersite, which will monitor fine particulate matter air pollution in the metropolitan area.

The comprehensive, collaborative program is designed to measure pollutants at one core site and three different satellite sites within metropolitan St. Louis. Allied studies with separate funding will investigate relationships between different pollutants and human illnesses ranging from cardiovascular disease to pulmonary illnesses.

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Software for the American dream

As one of the nation's leading research institutions, it's not surprising that Washington University is at the forefront of efforts to make university-produced technologies available to the public through patents and licensing agreements. But the campus community might be surprised to learn that the University's most frequently licensed technology was not invented by engineers or medical researchers, but is, rather, a software program developed at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work.

Known as the Management Information System for Individual Development Accounts (MIS IDA), the software is designed to help state agencies, community development organizations and other nonprofit groups manage, monitor and evaluate local programs that offer matched savings accounts for poor and low-income residents.

"Demand for the software program has been tremendous," said Andrew Neighbour, associate vice chancellor for technology management and director of the Center of Technology Management. "Other technologies produce more revenue for the University, but MIS IDA is definitely our leader in terms of individual licenses granted."

The University has granted more than 100 licenses for the software program, a boom in commercial activity driven by the increasing national popularity of individual development account (IDA) savings programs. Now being implemented in more than 30 states, IDAs were conceived and popularized by Michael W. Sherraden, Ph.D., the Benjamin Youngdahl Professor of Social Development and director of the Center for Social Development (CSD) in the social work school.

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